Chapter 141: A Draw Noah Would Have Preferred Not to Make.
Noah thought the meeting had ended, but that was his first mistake.
Aria had already put away the napkin with the draft of the calendar, Luna had checked the work schedules for the third time, Iris was using her phone, and Ren seemed to be waiting for the exact moment to leave.
Yume, for her part, remained seated looking at the table, at which Noah stood up.
"Well, then I think we can go."
No one responded and Noah took his backpack.
"Girls?"
Yume slowly raised her head.
"We have a problem."
Noah sat back down.
’Of course we have a problem.’
Luna looked at Yume.
"What is it?"
Yume rested both hands on the table.
"Noah’s mothers."
Noah stopped moving.
"What about my mothers?"
Yume pointed at him.
"They still don’t know I’m your girlfriend."
Luna blinked, Iris looked up from her phone, Ren slowly turned toward Noah, and Aria stopped checking the napkin.
For several seconds none of them said anything.
Noah felt they had just found a matter he would have preferred to keep forgotten for several more months.
Yume continued.
"Well, they know I exist."
Noah nodded.
"Yes."
"Because I went to your house."
"That’s right."
"I even left them gifts."
"That too."
"But you never introduced me properly."
Noah tried to find an answer.
"It’s just that..."
Yume crossed her arms.
"I’ve been your girlfriend for quite a while."
"I know."
"And your mothers still think I’m just a high school classmate."
Noah lowered his gaze.
’This got complicated real fast.’
Luna spoke then.
"I wasn’t introduced either."
Noah looked at her.
"You didn’t even enter my house normally."
"I entered."
"Through the window and while invisible."
"But I entered."
"I don’t think that counts."
"Then we need to fix it."
Noah opened his mouth, but Iris intervened.
"Why do you need to organize that too?"
Everyone looked at her, at which Iris slightly raised her shoulders.
"I go to his house, say I’m his girlfriend, greet his mothers, and I’m done."
Noah pointed at her.
"Don’t do that!"
"Why?"
"Because my mothers don’t know I have five relationships!"
Iris observed him.
"Then they’ll find out."
Noah fell silent.
’I can’t argue against that logic because she’s technically right.’
Yume gently tapped the table with a finger.
"Anyway, I’m going first."
Luna answered immediately.
"No."
Yume turned toward her.
"What do you mean, no?"
"The agreement says none of us has privileges over the others."
"I was the first girlfriend!"
"You kept the title, but Aria clearly said that didn’t change the calendar."
Yume pointed at the napkin Aria still had.
"This isn’t the calendar!"
"It’s time related to Noah."
"Introducing myself to his mothers isn’t a date!"
Luna stared at her.
"Then it shouldn’t matter to you if you go after."
Yume opened her mouth and stayed quiet for two seconds before answering.
"That’s different."
"No it isn’t."
"Yes it is."
"No."
"Yes it is!"
Noah raised both hands.
"Wait, we can talk about this."
No one paid him any attention and Aria adjusted her hair.
"Actually, I consider that the priority belongs to me."
Everyone turned toward her, at which Aria smiled.
"I’m his fiancée."
Yume immediately refused.
"No way."
Luna agreed.
"You already presented yourself as his fiancée."
Aria kept her smile.
"I only informed them of my position, so that wasn’t a formal introduction."
Ren spoke.
"It was pretty formal."
Aria looked at her.
"Ren."
"You told them you were engaged to Noah."
"But I didn’t make a proper visit."
"What would a proper visit be for you?"
"A dinner, family conversation, explanation of our future marriage..."
Ren began to turn red.
"...possibly talking about the ceremony, the residence, and..."
"Stop."
Ren raised a hand.
"Definitely not."
Aria smiled.
"But you’ll have to do it with me."
Ren quickly refused.
"No."
"We’re fiancées of the same person."
"I don’t need to introduce myself."
Noah looked at Ren.
"You don’t?"
Ren crossed her arms and looked away.
"I’ve known Emma and Sarah since I was a kid."
Noah immediately remembered that Ren had been his childhood friend long before he arrived in this world.
Ren continued.
"I’ve already been to your house many times, so they know me."
Yume answered.
"As Noah’s friend."
Ren went still, at which Luna added.
"Not as his fiancée."
Ren slowly lowered her head.
"I don’t want to do this."
Aria looked at her, amused.
"How adorable."
"Shut up."
"Are you embarrassed?"
"Of course I’m embarrassed."
Aria moved a little closer.
"But when you were a kid you weren’t embarrassed to sleep at his house."
Ren raised her head abruptly.
"We were kids!"
Noah blinked.
"You slept at my house?"
Ren turned even redder.
"It doesn’t matter!"
Aria smiled with satisfaction, but Yume immediately looked at Noah.
"You two slept together?"
"I don’t remember."
"What do you mean you don’t remember?"
Noah swallowed.
"It was a long time ago."
’More precisely, it happened before I arrived in this body.’
Luna looked at Ren.
"That can be considered a prior advantage."
Ren opened her eyes.
"I’m not trying to have any advantage!"
Iris looked back at her phone.
"This conversation is useless."
Yume turned toward her.
"For you everything is useless until it has video games."
"Correct, any problem with that?"
Noah rested a hand on his forehead, since the meeting that had supposedly ended had just started another discussion.
This time they weren’t even talking about how to divide his time, but were now negotiating the order in which they would officially announce to his mothers that he had several partners.
’Emma is going to faint.’
He thought for a moment.
’Sarah might faint too.’
Then he remembered what both of them were like.
’No, they’ll probably interrogate me for four hours first.’
Aria picked up the napkin again.
"We need an impartial system."
Luna nodded.
"Agreed."
Yume frowned.
"As long as it respects that I was first."
"No."
Yume looked at her.
"Luna!"
Iris put away her phone.
"Paper slips."
Everyone watched her, at which Iris explained.
"We write numbers from 1 to 4, mix them up, and each of us takes one."
Noah was surprised.
"That was pretty reasonable."
Iris looked at him.
"It’s because I want to go home."
"I understand."
Aria gently refused.
"I should be left out of the draw."
Yume smiled.
"I agree."
Aria looked at her in surprise.
"Really?"
"Yes, because you already introduced yourself."
Aria’s smile faded slightly.
"That wasn’t what I meant."
Luna supported the proposal.
"Aria already informed them she’s Noah’s fiancée, so she doesn’t need priority."
Ren raised a hand.
"Then neither do I."
Aria took her wrist and lowered her arm.
"You’re coming with me."
"Why?"
"Because we’re Noah’s fiancées."
"That doesn’t make sense."
"Of course it makes sense."
"If I go, I want to go alone."
Aria observed her for a few seconds and Ren immediately corrected herself.
"I want not to go."
"That’s not an option."
Noah tried to intervene.
"Actually..."
Five gazes turned toward him, so Noah closed his mouth.
’Never mind.’
Finally, Aria got some pieces of paper and they wrote numbers from one to four.
Aria would not officially participate because she had already presented herself as his fiancée, although she insisted she needed a second proper introduction.
Ren tried to escape from the table during the preparation, but Aria grabbed her by the sleeve.
"Sit down."
"Let me go."
"No."
"I don’t want to know the result."
"You’ll know it whether you want to or not."
"Aria."
"Ren."
Noah watched them.
’They’re going to marry me and I still don’t understand how they survived so many years engaged to each other.’
Yume was the first to take a paper, opened it immediately, and her eyes lit up.
"One!"
Luna narrowed her eyes while Yume raised the paper with pride.
"Justice exists!"
Luna took another and opened it.
"Two."
Yume smiled.
"As it should be."
"Don’t start."
Iris took one and looked at the number.
"Four."
Ren looked at the last paper on the table, but made no attempt to take it, so Aria picked it up for her.
"Three."
Ren closed her eyes.
"No."
Aria hugged her by one shoulder.
"Perfect, we’ll go together."
"I can’t believe it."
"This way I can also carry out my formal introduction."
"This was your plan."
"I had no control over the draw."
Ren sighed.
"I want to go back to when Noah thought I was a guy."
Noah decided not to answer while Yume wrote down the result.
"Then it’s like this."
She raised one finger.
"First me."
Another.
"Then Luna."
Another.
"Then Ren."
Aria cleared her throat, so Yume looked at her.
"Aria and Ren."
"Better."
"And finally, Iris."
Iris nodded.
"Fine."
Noah raised a hand.
"Can I give my opinion now?"
Yume looked at him.
"Sure."
Noah took a deep breath.
"I don’t want you to do this yet."
There was silence and then Iris spoke first.
"Opinion registered."
Noah opened his eyes.
"Is that all?"
"Yes."
"You’re not going to consider it!"
Aria answered calmly.
"Of course we will."
"Then?"
"We considered it and decided to continue without taking it into account."
"That’s not considering it!"
Luna crossed her arms.
"You should have introduced us earlier."
Noah pointed at Yume.
"I tried with her several times!"
Yume nodded.
"And all of them ended badly."
"One time I jumped through your window!"
"That was because my mother arrived first."
"Exactly!"
Aria observed the situation.
"There’s another rule."
Noah didn’t want to hear it, but Yume did.
"What is it?"
"No sabotaging the introductions."
Luna nodded.
"It’s within the general agreement."
Aria continued.
"None of us will be able to appear during another’s assigned day, and neither will we send messages to Noah with the intention of interrupting."
Iris asked.
"Can I text him to play?"
"No."
"Then I don’t like that rule."
Yume pointed at Iris.
"No casually showing up!"
"I don’t do that."
Luna looked at her.
"You waited outside Noah’s house several times."
"That was different."
"How?"
Iris fell silent.
"It was more efficient."
Noah didn’t want to ask and Ren added something.
"No gifts meant to compete either."
Yume slowly lowered the bag she had started looking at and Luna observed the movement.
"Were you already thinking about what to buy?"
"No."
"Yes, you were thinking about it."
"I said no."
Aria smiled.
"Then it’s established that no sabotage among us."
Yume sighed.
"Fine."
Luna nodded, Iris accepted, and Ren did too, so Aria extended a hand toward Noah.
"Now we need to choose the dates."
Noah stood up immediately.
"No."
Aria blinked.
"Noah."
"We’ll do that another day."
"But..."
"Another day!"
For the first time since the meeting began, Noah managed to leave the café before anyone could stop him.